Our Lady Of Ransom Catholic Church

The budget for the renovation of our church and hall allocated very little money for landscaping. The initial thought of the building committee was to put down grass seed or sod to cover the disturbed areas and to leave landscaping as a separate project for parishioners of a future time.

As the outside walls of the church neared completion, the committee was pleasantly surprised by how wonderful the outside of the church looked, and taken aback by how bad the existing landscaping looked. We began to second-guess ourselves and wondered if failure to landscape at this time would be a mistake. We re-visited the budget, but there was not nearly enough money there to do the job.

LANDSCAPING IS REVISITED

The chairman of the non-sacred space subcommittee, John Imber, asked for and received permission from the committee to investigate the landscaping issue. This included what kind of things could be planted, where they would be planted, could we start small and add more landscaping later, could we landscape only some areas now and others, later, and a very important consideration, how could this landscaping be maintained and at what cost.

TIME TO TAKE ACTION

John prepared a “Request for Proposal” covering all of the above mentioned considerations, and sent it out to landscaping designers and contractors. He met with them individually to answer their questions, to ensure that all of our concerns were covered, and brought his selection recommendations to the full committee for approval.

All of the participating landscapers and designers were unanimous about one thing. To properly maintain this new landscaping, underground sprinklers were an absolute necessity. This represented a sizeable increase to the estimated cost of the landscaping, once again pushing it out to the future as a separate project for future parishioners.

Some of the designers yielded suggestions for raising funds for the project. The most appealing was introducing paving bricks to the landscape design, and selling the right to have them engraved to the parishioners. A local company was identified that was willing to work with us on this part of the project, and representatives were invited to attend a committee meeting to present their proposal.

SOMETHING WE COULD HANDLE

Finally, a financial and landscaping plan began to emerge. If the landscaping project used mostly perennial plants, and if the trees and bushes planted were young and small rather than older and more mature, the cost of the landscaping would fall to a point where it might be financed out of operating funds, and the cost of the underground sprinklers should be paid for from the brick project. Approval was given to proceed with the installation.

To help manage the process of developing a marketing plan, and selling, obtaining engraving information, proofreading the engraving information, and selecting the placement for the bricks, the invaluable assistance of Kathleen and Mel Sass was enlisted, as was Kathy Imber’s. John oversaw the installation of the landscaping and the underground sprinklers himself.

THE FINAL RESULTS

The final installation of the Garden of Reflection and the associated landscaping is breathtakingly beautiful, as the pictures below will show.

The Garden of Reflection, looking south towards Normal Ave.

New landscaping as seen from Greenwood Ave.

New landscaping as seen from Normal Ave.

A close-up of some of the engraving

The first offering of paving bricks for engraving was done for the dedication mass of the church by Cardinal Francis George. The second offering was done for our annual FunFest celebration.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

The concept of engraved paving bricks turned out to be hugely popular and successful. We exceeded the revenue expectations of our contractor by over two and half times! The sale of the pavers paid for all of the landscaping and all of the installation of the underground sprinklers. Shortly you will see the newest additions to the Garden of Reflection, a fountain in the center of the middle circle of bricks, with new benches on either side. Looking to the future, each year an offering will be made to the parishioners to participate in the engraved brick program. Therefore, if you missed it this year, you will have another chance next year!

Finally, several members of the parish have volunteered to care for sections of the landscaping. As needed they come by with their gardening tools to weed, cultivate, fertilize, and otherwise care for their section of the landscaping. We are in need of more volunteers. If you are interested in taking some direct action to make your parish grounds more beautiful, please contact the Ministry Center and express your wish to volunteer.

We are grateful to the parishioners for supporting this project.

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